Comment Re: indentured servitude at min wage IRS income (Score 1) 158
Yeah, thanks to the Trump "tax cut", people are getting hit with taxes from employer fringe benefits, particularly "take home" vehicles provided by the employer.
This is FUD. Like any small insurance company that doesn’t want to go bankrupt within a decade, they’re reinsured (in their case, through Lloyd’s of London) to deal with exactly that sort of scenario.
The way they operate is simple: - They keep a flat 25% of premium payments. - The remaining 75% is used to pay out claims and to purchase reinsurance. Anything left over at the end of the year from this pot gets paid out to charities that their customers select.
My insurer pays out a dividend if there is anything leftover in that "pot" at the end of the year. Nice to get a discount.
At the undergraduate level, we have done some surveys to see where the student equipment stands. about 30% do not have access to a computer steadily throughout the day. The most common pattern seems to be, 2 parents and 3 kids, maybe 2 actual computers and a couple tablets. And these are students in a BS in Computer Science, you would think they have access to computers.
So in brief, I think people are doing what they can. But it is hell right now!
This is actually surprising. 20+ years ago, the university I attended basically gave all undergrads a desktop computer to use for their studies since computers were integral to the curriculum and it wasn't guaranteed that one would have a computer at home already. They have long since discontinued the practice since computers became ubiquitous. They did offer a discounted PC purchase program as a replacement, but most of the student body has a laptop at that point.
"Just think of a computer as hardware you can program." -- Nigel de la Tierre
